Inspiring Christian Lives

Richard Wurmbrand, 1909-2001

Richard Wurmbrand, 1909-2001 Romania 1945 Communists seize power in Romania and 'invite' 1 million Russian troops into the country. A Lutheran pastor, Richard Wurmbrand and his wife are invited to attend a communist congress and swear their loyalty to the new regime. On the verge of so doing, Richard's wife, Sabina, checks him: "Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ." Richard warned, "If I do so, you'll lose your husband." She replied, "I don't wish to have a coward as a husband." Thus Richard declared to the 4,000 delegates, whose speeches were broadcast to the whole nation, that their duty is to glorify God and Christ alone. Between 1945 and 1947, Richard distributed one million Gospels to Russian troops, the books often disguised as Communist propaganda. Richard also smuggled Gospels into Russia. He was no stranger to this kind of activity. During World War Two he and his wife had been active in rescuing Jews and hiding them from the Nazi occupiers. On February 29, 1948, the communist secret police arrested Richard while on his way to church and took him to their headquarters. He was locked in a solitary cell and assigned as 'Prisoner Number 1.' This would be the first of many occasions when he and his wife were imprisoned for Christian activity in the communist state of Romania. While in prison, he went through horrific tortures at the hands of the brutal secret police. Despite the treatments and the warnings he received from his persecutors, Richard resumed his work with the 'underground' churches after his release. His work led to the spreading of these underground churches throughout the Iron Curtain territories: these became known as 'Jesus to the Communist World'. Later, during an amnesty, Richard moved to the United States, and in 1966 he appeared before a U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, where he stripped to the waist and revealed eighteen deep torture wounds on his body. His story spread rapidly, leading to more and more speaking engagements. In 1990, after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989, Richard and Sabina returned to Romania after 25 years in exile and were warmly received. A printing facility and bookstore were opened in Bucharest, and the officials of the city offered storage below the palace of Ceausescu, the very site where Richard had been held in solitary confinement.